A sessions court has sentenced a school van driver to 14-year imprisonment for sexually abusing a minor girl. Owais Khan, the driver of a school van, was found guilty of sexually abusing a seven-year-old girl while she was alone in the vehicle.
Additional Sessions Judge (Central) Mirza Tauseef Ahmed observed that the accused was liable for conviction for offence of sexual abuse as defined under Section 377-A of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and punishment as provided under Section 377-B of PPC.
The court sentenced the convict to 14 years of imprisonment with a Rs1 million fine. In case of default, he shall undergo additional three-year simple imprisonment. The judge noted that the acts described by the victim clearly amounted to fondling, stroking, caressing and sexually explicit acts, adding that in cases of such nature, it was a well-settled law that even the solitary statement of the victim was enough to convict the accused if the same was confidence-inspiring.
“Furthermore, the children usually speak truth; therefore, it cannot be said that minor has implicated the accused falsely at behest of any other person,” the judge said. “In the circumstances, I am convinced that the prosecution has fully established the charge of sexual abuse against the accused; however, the prosecution has failed to prove the offence of criminal intimidation, as the victim did not depose so in her statement under Section 164 CrPC,” he added.
The court noted that the victim was a child of only seven years and thus she was in a vulnerable position in front of the accused. “The children are otherwise weak segment of our society and thus they have to be protected in accordance with law against all the evil acts and the culprits are to be given exemplary punishment so that the children may feel themselves saved,” it said.
According to state prosecutor Hina Naz Shams, on November 20, 2023, an FIR was lodged at the Taimuria police station against van driver Owais Khan on the complaint of the girl’s father. In the FIR, the complainant stated that his daughter had been studying at a private school in North Nazimabad since August 2022 and for her pick and drop from home to school and back, he had engaged the van driver. He said that he noticed change in his daughter’s attitude for about one and a half months as she was not talking and eating properly.
On November 17, the girl, on her mother’s insistence, disclosed that the driver used to touch her private parts and forced her to touch his when she was alone in a van. The prosecutor contended that the offence of sexual abuse against the accused had been fully proved through prosecution witnesses, specially the victim’s statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) that fully supported the contents of the FIR. She argued that although the victim did not appear before this court for evidence, her statement could be relied upon under Section 265-J of the CrPC read with Article 47 of the Qanoon-e-Shahadat.
She said that the accused traumatized the minor girl of seven-year old, who had still not come out of the trauma, thus pleading for “exemplary punishment” for the accused. On the other hand, the defence lawyer contended that the victim gave a vague statement at the behest of her parents, but it was lacking ingredients of the offence. He contended that the complainant malafidely did not produce the minor before this court to face a cross-examination on the basis of a baseless medical certificate of the alleged victim. He said that his client was innocent and had falsely been implicated in the case, requesting the judge to acquit him.
In his written order, the judge noted that it was the fact that the minor was of tender age and the act of sexual abuse has its own repercussions on the person going through it, be it a major person. “In this case, the offence, has been allegedly committed with a minor and severity of the effects should be more which has been confirmed by the psychiatrist who held sessions with her and has found that the minor goes into trauma and anxiety if enquired about the incident,” he noted. “Thus, the prosecution has fully proved that victim is not capable of giving evidence and thus the statement of the victim is relevant and admissible.”
Published in The News on September 04, 2025.
